Author R&R with Lorie Lewis Ham

Lorie Lewis Ham lives in Reedley, California and has been writing ever since she was a child. Her first song and poem were published when she was 13, and she has gone on to publish many articles, short stories, and poems throughout the years, as well as write for a local newspaper, and publish 7 mystery novels. For the past 14 years, Lorie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, where you can hear an excerpt of her book One of Us, the first in a new series called The Tower District Mysteries. Book 2, One of You, was released in June of 2024.

About One of You: With her life on the California Coast behind her, Roxi Carlucci is beginning to feel at home in the Tower District—the cultural oasis of Fresno, CA—where she now lives with her cousin-private eye Stephen Carlucci, her pet rat Merlin, a Pit Bull named Watson, and a black cat named Dan. She has a new entertainment podcast, works as a part-time P.I., and is helping local bookstore owner Clark Halliwell put on the first-ever Tower Halloween Mysteryfest. The brutal summer heat is gone and has been replaced by the dense tule fog—perfect for Halloween! She just wishes everyone would stop calling her the "Jessica Fletcher" of the Tower District simply because she found a dead body when she first arrived. But when one of the Mysteryfest authors is found dead, she fears she jinxed herself. The Carlucci’s are hired to find the killer before they strike again. Will Mysteryfest turn into a murder fest? How is the local gossip website back, and what does it know about the death of Roxi’s parents?

Lorie stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about her books:

"Writing and Research Through the Years: What Changed/What Stayed the Same"

With the release of my new book, One of You, this past June, I have now published seven mystery novels. The first five were published in the early 2000s, and the latest two were published in 2021 and now 2024. As I look back at the process of both writing and promoting those books, it is amazing to me how much has changed, but also what hasn’t changed.

My first book, Murder in Four-Part Harmony, was also the first book I ever completed. It took me a LONG time (ten years at least) to finish as I was learning as I went along. I was also reading every book on mystery writing I could get my hands on and religiously reading Lawrence Block’s column in Writer’s Digest. In my first books, I wrote what I knew—I was a gospel singer at the time so my sleuth was also one. It was a world I knew well—the good and the bad. Each of the next several books took one or two years to write.

Back then, promotion was a lot different. ARCs (Advance Reading Copies) were only in paperback. Then they had to be sent off via snail mail. While author websites were becoming important, there wasn’t much else as far as online promotion back then. You set up book events at bookstores and libraries and did everything in real life.

The next book I wrote, One of Us, which was the first book in my new Tower District Mystery series, took me roughly ten years to write. It was also the shortest book I’ve ever written at around 63,000 words. This time it was normal life that slowed the process, and figuring out what the new series would be. I was busy with my online magazine Kings River Life, which took up most of my writing time.

When that book finally came out in 2021, it was a whole new world as far as promotion and events go. With both that book and the new one, most of my promotion has been online and I have only sent out one print ARC, all the rest were eBook ARCs through the Bookfunnel website. While I am actually having a few local in person events this time for my new book, the majority of my promotion with both of these books is online.

Thankfully, One of You, only took me three years to write and publish instead of ten. Before edits, it was also the longest book I had ever written at 99.000 words. The edited product though is closer to the length of those first books I wrote, 83,000 words. But honestly, I was shocked at how long it was to begin with—none of my other books even started out that long! One of You was very much the product of two NaNoWriMos (National Novel Writing Month) and Sisters in Crime Write-Ins in between, so perhaps that had something to do with its original length—word count is of high priority at NaNoWriMo! Keep in mind I am also a pantser (I just sit down and write the first draft—no outline), something else that hasn’t changed since my first book.

The research I do for my books has changed in some ways, and not in others. Both times I wrote what I knew up to a point. My new series is set in the Tower District (the arts and entertainment district of Fresno, CA), an area I know well. My main character is a podcaster, and so am I. It involves community theatre and animal rescue—both things I have been involved with. The two series are connected by a certain family—the Carluccis—who appear in both. They in turn come from a Mafia family. My early research on the Mafia was largely done by reading a lots of books and newspaper articles. Now my research is mostly done on the internet, except for making trips to the Tower District to check on certain details like street names and to absorb the feel of the place.

However, the main research I do for the mystery parts of the stories has stayed mostly the same. Early on, I believe through Sisters in Crime, I became acquainted with the wonderful D.P. Lyle who helps me with medical and coroner details for the body. He still is a resource to this day, as are the wonderful books he has written along those lines. The local police detective I interviewed for those investigation details with that very first book, Steve Wright, is still my main resource in that area as well. He has gone from police detective, all the way up to police chief, and now retired, during that time. I couldn’t do this without them.

One last thing that has stayed the same all the way through my mystery author journey is Sisters in Crime. They are not only a great resource for all things mystery publishing and writing, but they have been very supportive all along my journey. Without my then local chapter in Fresno, I never would have written my first book series because it was someone there who suggested the idea of writing a series featuring a gospel singing amateur sleuth-it had never crossed my mind.

You can learn more about Lorie and her writing on her website mysteryrat.com and find her on Facebook, BookBub, Goodreads, and Instagram @krlmagazine & @lorielewishamauthor. One of You is now available via all major online booksellers.